Jacksonville, FL

By Lexistential Crisis

The #10 Seed Charlottesville Derby Dames upset #7 Seed Glasgow Roller Derby earlier in the day Friday to earn the chance to play the #2 Denver Roller Derby in their first game of the 2015 International WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs Jacksonville. Denver is the highest-ranked team that Charlottesville has played this season, and Charlottesville is the lowest-ranked team Denver has played this season. The strong defense Charlottesville displayed earlier in the day was tested by Denver, whose agile jammers found ways to sneak through the smallest holes.

Photo by Louis Keiner

Charlottesville surprised many by making it difficult for Denver’s jammers to quickly earn lead in the first few jams. They built solid walls that stayed near Denver’s braced walls to keep both jammers in the pack. Spank Puncherella scored Charlottesville’s first points of the game when she sped through the pack past Denver’s Blackman, who was later sent to the box for a back block penalty. Charlottesville’s blockers jumped in to help their jammer and they outscored Denver with 18 points in that jam to make the score 25-18. In the following jam, Charlottesville earned lead jammer status for the first time in the game, but instead of calling the jam off they lost lead when B-One Bomber passed the star to River Styx Phoenix. This gave Denver’s Wilhelm time to score 24 points and begin the steady increase in point differential. Denver increased their score to 96 over Charlottesville’s 22 to give them a 74-point lead with 15 minutes left in the period.

In the following jam, Charlottesville achieved their goal of getting lead and scoring when River Styx Phoenix earned lead. While scoring, she passed the star to LeeLoo Dallas Multismash, who also put some points on the board while Denver’s jammer sat in the box. Charlottesville scored 13 points in that jam over Denver’s six. Unfortunately LeeLoo also committed a penalty and began the next jam in the box. Denver finished the half strong as they added 73 points to their total and limited Charlottesville to 25. The halftime score was 175-60 in favor of Denver.

Photo by Louis Keiner

Denver played a slightly different game in the second half. Their blockers played more cleanly, and they only gave Charlottesville one power jam opportunity. With more skaters on the track, Denver was able to score more points and also severely limit Charlottesville’s scoring. Charlottesville still had many successful moments where they were able to halt Denver’s jammers and use well-timed offense to get their own jammers out of the pack. Charlottesville adjusted their strategy and began utilizing star passes more often. They passed the star at the start of the jam and in the middle of the jam to help limit Denver’s scoring. Charlottesville’s coach explained that the 10 star passes they did in the second half were to aid their goal of “putting points on the board” by getting a “fresh set of legs against Denver’s walls.”

Despite many great moments, Charlottesville was held to 66 points for 10 jams while Denver steadily grew their lead. With 15 minutes left in the game Denver led by 184 points with a score of 250-66. By playing smart, strong defense and strategic offense, Denver continued to pile on points throughout the rest of the second half. Sharpless, Wilhelm, and Blackman all had jams of over 20 points to add to Denver’s score. The game’s top scorer, Wilhelm, was responsible for the largest jam of the game when she added a final 30 points to Denver’s score in the last jam. This gave them a final score of 379 over Charlottesville’s 83. Denver moves to the semifinals where they will play the winner of Game 6 (Jacksonville or Detroit) Saturday at 8 pm Eastern. Charlottesville will play the loser of Game 6 tomorrow at 4 pm.

FINAL SCORE

Denver Roller Derby (#2) 379
Charlottesville Derby Dames (#10) 83